French double

I had a long chat with Pete today.  It’s all systems go for Winker on Sunday week in the Prix Morny, and he’s working extremely well.  I don’t see anything beating him – if he wins we may go for an extremely aggressive 2yo campaign with him. The best news he had concerned Bouguereau.  Pete was on his way to …

Effing disaster

A very disappointing run from Effingham, who never got into the race and finished down the field at Ponty.  The ground, which was good to firm in the morning, was changed to firm with G/F patches immediately after the race.  Michael Hills reported that the horse wasn’t enjoying the ground at all. I guess it wasn’t a surprise given he …

Boogie blues

On the face of it Bouguereau ran pretty disappointingly – seventh out of 18 is nothing special and given the form of his trainer and my general expectation it was a poor result.  He did show a lot of promise though, taking the long way round and moving up pretty smoothly before coming to a halt.  Michael Hills said that …

Bouguer off

It’s a big day today as I find out how good Bouguereau is.  He’s been working very nicely at home, but is still immature in a number of ways.  There are three possible concerns about today’s race; There may be better horses in the race He has a bad draw He’s a big baby and he may run in snatches …

Captain my captain

After yesterday I’m really going to struggle to ignore Ryan Moore’s rides.  I watched his face after a couple of his wins – he seems to show no trace of emotion and he reminds me a bit of Lester Piggott.  It’s a fairly obvious comment but I think he’ll turn out to be pretty special. Captain Hurricane goes again today, and …

Jockey trouble

Following my good day yesterday I’ll be coming back for more today, and the race I like is the King George Stakes.  I’ve been planning to back Wi Dud all day.  Our lawyer at Betfair knows some of the owners (similar connections to Amadeus Wolf) – the horse is apparently very well and the conditions look ideal for him to …

The perfect wave

I wonder how much of my character has been created by fate.  As a boy I had a lot of luck.  My father took me to the races for the first time when I was nine – I was allowed one 25p bet on the big handicap of the day.  I picked the horse I most liked out of the parade ring, …

A poor start to the week

A bad day yesterday – Major Eazy ran his worst race for a while and I lost a lot of money punting.  To make matters worse I twice backed against horses of Pete’s and on both occasions Pete’s horse won.  Major Eazy takes a decent break now, which I think is well overdue.  I was at Goodwood yesterday, but I won’t …